#strighym companion

[noamuth]

Dal as a Companion: Location and Recruitment

Dalamus can be found along the same beach that the player lands after being thrown from the Nautiloid, a bit further North than where Shadowheart is found.

He can be seen attempting to get to his feet, but failing, obviously disoriented and possibly injured judging by the way he falters when trying to stand and his labored breathing. He appears to be looking for his piwafwi, and sees it caught on some rubble or a tree branch, precariously flapping in the wind and ready to be whisked away at any moment.

When approached, a "mental handshake" of the tadpoles is triggered and the player will see glimpses of Menzoberranzan, Dalamus' exile through his eyes and flashes of pain, his escape from the Nautiloid pod, and generally feel his paranoia and desperation to return home.

He immediately aims a dagger at the player before they can get closer, and will threaten them in Drowic. If the player knows Drowic, they can offer help or ask to speak in Common. Whatever the language, Dalamus will insist that he does not need the help, despite still having difficulties standing, and the heat bearing down on him causing him to exhaust quickly.

His piwafwi dislodges from where it is stuck and is carried by the wind, and the player can catch it, at which point they have a few options:

Approach and give it to the Drow

Let the Drow approach you and take it

Hold onto it until the Drow agrees to join you

Let the piwafwi flutter away in the wind

Options 1 and 2 gain slight approval from Dalamus, and will trigger conversation that allows the player to convince him to either join them or go their separate ways. The best way to get him to join is to somehow convince him that it is mutually beneficial. Or, at the risk of gaining disapproval, one can say he owes them a favor for returning his piwafwi.

Option 3 skips the secondary dialogue, as the player bargains up front, and Dalamus may join but at a lower approval.

Option 4 will have Dalamus initiate combat immediately, although his disorientation in the sun without his piwafwi and aggravated back injury make him an easy fight even for a brand new player.

If Dalamus is alive but not recruited at the Ravaged Beach, he can be seen again within the destroyed Nautiloid, having been cornered by imps while in search of information about the tadpoles. If one engages in battle and saves him, he will begrudgingly join the player, now feeling that a debt is owed and knowing he cannot survive the surface alone.

[noamuth]

Dalamus Strighym in-game sliders

Race: Drow

Subrace: Lolth-Sworn

Class: Thief Rogue

Background: Urchin

Weapons: Dual-wields daggers (for character canon. For battle effectiveness, other weapons can be used)

[noamuth]

Sometimes I like thinking about how a Dal camp companion would work.

Like, after going too long between Long Rests with Dal in the party, he will start to show signs of pain not unlike the way Gale does. But, unlike Gale, Dal does NOT confide in you at the moment. You have to take a Long Rest and speak to him at camp, choosing careful dialogue options to get him to admit that he has a fairly new but chronic back injury--it's been too long since getting the injury to heal by magic means (it's "healed" as much as it's going to, the same way that a scar can be a cause of pain but is the "healed" form of the injury), only rest helps to sort of.. "reset" it.

Initially, having him stay behind in camp leads to huffy, indignant comments like "Good luck. You will need it without me." Both because he feels as though he's being treated as weak or being seen as a liability.

BUT, with enough approval/friendship and knowing his situation, removing him from the party will cause him to actually thank you for the chance to rest because he knows you care about him, and when he joins the party again he will remark on how refreshed he feels.

Using healing magic on him will obviously work to replenish health, but will earn negative comments from him.

He makes negative comments about things like the sun and the heat, and awe-struck and positive comments about things like flowers and art (especially fashion and jewelry, but also scenic paintings about places he's never been before).

Dal will make negative remarks to and about any primarily-magic-wielding party member to show the player his displeasure about magic and, in part, his insecurity around magic users.

His banter towards everyone is somewhat antagonistic at first but slowly softens more into curiosity:

He goes from hating Gale to asking him questions about the world because he realizes Gale is too eager to teach to be judgemental about it. In return, he offers analogous information about the Underdark to satisfy Gale's curiosity.

He goes from being bigoted towards Lae'zel to appreciating her skills in combat as well as her knowledge on Illithids despite her young age, as well as feeling a bit of connection in the fact that neither of them are from Faerun.

He goes from being incredibly suspicious of Astarion and thinking him whiny about his past, to feeling a kinship with him because of their pasts filled with cruelty once Dalamus realizes that his past was, indeed, cruel. They're Double Trouble when together in battle, and share a similar sense of dark humor. They bicker like divorcees who still care a great deal about each other.

He goes from being distrustful and even fearful of Shadowheart (as a Trickery Domain Cleric), to appreciating her practicality and sarcastic wit. He also finds her bickering with Lae'zel and Astarion incredibly amusing and will egg them on sometimes.

He goes from being annoyed by Karlach's unquenchable cheer and zest for life, to admiring her ability to see the bright side of everything. Her hope is contagious and she helps him to see that he's not just an outcast, but a survivor, and now he's free. She also likes to show him new things for them to enjoy together.

He goes from being aggravated by Wyll's heroic attitude to admiring his determination to Do the Right Thing even though evil choices are incredibly tempting and even sometimes more profitable, especially when being enforced by a devil.

Halsin, Jaheira and Minsc I don't know much about yet, so I can't say his opinions

Like a few characters, Dal goes through a religious change, which one can influence--carefully. One leads to a Bad End for him, while the other leads to a Good End, whether romantically involved with the player character or not.

Bonding scenes with him may include (idk how many there usually are): eating dinner and talking about food, seeing him work on stones, sitting with him while he stargazes, talking about the Underdark and what he misses about it, talking about the surface world and his difficulty adjusting to it, talking about his fear of being abandoned by Lolth and feeling alone, giving him a gift (maybe a particular stone, or a journal from a drow who left Lolth and found a better life [saving this idea actually 👀])

[noamuth]

"what do you think we'll find at the Moonrise Towers?"

"idk maybe Drow (derogatory)"

*camera switch to the Drow character*

[noamuth]

Gave Astarion the scary book and in return he told me about his scary master

[noamuth]

So I accidentally flirted with Gale, but it was a good opportunity for screenshots, so enjoy smiling Dal!

[noamuth]

Observation

Living in Menzoberranzan requires one to be observant and vigilant. Strong emotions are exploitable, and most are careful to keep their true thoughts and feelings under a curated mask unless they have the power and influence to protect themselves in other ways. Priestesses and nobles could afford to be cocky, for example, thanks to nearly untouchable social status. Dalamus got to taste this bit of freedom for himself during his brief consortship.

Under normal circumstances, Dalamus would maintain a stoic outer appearance. This was lifted for moments which required politeness or charm, such as business or dealing with Nedvyllanna.

However, the events of the last several weeks have seen Dalamus exiled, injured, kidnapped, infected, ejected from a Nautiloid, and forced to work with strangers in a land he does not know and which, in several ways, does not agree with him--between the light, heat, and unwelcoming inhabitants.

Understandably, he currently struggles to keep the mask of stoicism on--especially when his pain flares--and his vigilance is in overdrive. Defensiveness often wins out over the desire to appear calm.

Even when he does seem calm, it is often a veneer. Just like when indicating health, his eyes often betray him. The calmest demeanor, the most tightly controlled expression, cannot hide the fact that his eyes are constantly watching, always moving. Analyzing behavior and measuring trust. Looking for danger, for deceit, for micro-movements in others' expressions which might reveal their "true" emotions or intentions.

[noamuth]

Magic Anon: Dal's socks (or sock equivalent)... ARE MISSING. For five minutes. Then they reappear somewhere harmless but confusing.

Dalamus scours every corner of his tent, but his socks are nowhere to be found. Not under his bedroll, nor under his pillow, or his blanket. Not behind the various books he has acquired, not next to his jar of stones. He crosses his arms and glances at the spiny-legged brown spider in its glass jar as it rests on its twig, oblivious to his plight.

He pulls on his boots and dons his piwafwi, then peeks from his tent, squinting his eyes against the bright light of day. He does not see his socks anywhere along the perimeter of his tent, nor at his workstation.

What he does see, is several of the camp members sitting around the fire as someone cooks, stirring something in a large pot. His stomach growls in response to the smell wafting through the air. Attempts to keep them at arm's length is costing him the occasional meal, although sometimes they forget to douse the flame at night and he is able to grab some soup or stew while most of them are sleeping.

He sees them. His socks. They are on the log right next to where Gale sits. How did they get over there? He never takes them off outside of his tent. Why would anyone take his socks? No matter which way he spins it, it makes no sense.

With a sigh of resignation, Dalamus pulls his piwafwi closer around himself and exits the tent. He will just have to confront Gale to get the truth. Surely the wizard would not try anything in front of the others? Unless they are all in alignment against him. But such deceit has not yet been obvious.

Gale sits facing away from him, allowing Dalamus to approach unnoticed by the wizard. His voice drifts into clarity as Dalamus gets closer.

"...sure he's not a vampire? The way he stays out of the sun, and those haunting red eyes?" The rest of the group goes silent, and stares over Gale's shoulder.

Gale seems to realize something, and a hint of amusement tugs at a corner of Dalamus' mouth. "...He's right behind me isn't he? Hello, Dalamus," the wizard greets with exaggerated enthusiasm, turning to glance at him. "We were just--"

"Why do you have my socks?"

Gale blinks several times. "..Beg pardon?"

"My socks. Next to you. Why did you take them?"

Gale glances down at the space beside him and, sure enough, there were socks. "Truth be told, I'm not sure where they came from. I'm almost certain they weren't there when I sat down. By all means, take them. While you're here, why not have something to eat?"

Before Dalamus can refuse, several others chime in to agree with Gale. One person expresses needless concern that he has skipped a meal. Another expresses how good the food is. Lae'zel says he is no use to them withered from starvation.

While he has his reservations on whether the food is as delicious as the others claim, he cannot deny his hunger, nor that skipping meals helps no one. Everyone is eating from the pot, so presumably it is not tainted. One person even goes back for seconds as he considers it.

His stomach wins out. After putting his socks on his feet and putting his feet back into his boots, Dalamus grabs a bowl and gets some broth from the pot. He sits on a log by himself, where he can keep everyone within his sight. No one seems to mind.

The broth is.. not bad.

[noamuth]

A talk with Gale

[noamuth]

Gemcutting

Dalamus is trained and skilled in the art of gemcutting--shaping stones and gems into pleasant shapes to be used for decoration and jewelry. This skill is part of what allowed him into the minor noble house of Strighym (the other part being the matron, Nedvyllanna, wanting him as consort for his "interesting" hair and eyes).

There, he had access to the best lapidary tools he could hope for in order to perfect his craft. Stations he sat down at to work with, and gems of all kinds brought in from mines. Items enchanted with the Stone Shape spell. With clay in hand, Dalamus could mold it into the shape of what he wished to achieve with a raw gemstone, and then manually carve, grind, and polish it with other tools. Being able to use Stone Shape saved a significant amount of material that would have otherwise been shaved off by manually shaping the stone.

Once exiled, however, he was limited to what grit he had in his pouches, and whatever stones and gems he could find that were soft enough to grind, shape, and polish by hand. These are usually stones or gems with a hardness of 6 or less, and needs a hard, flat surface to grind against that will not wear down as quickly as the stone.

At camp, Dalamus can often be seen at his tent, grinding away at some stone or gem he picked up as the group traveled. Although the sound of grinding and polishing is likely not pleasant to his fellow companions, the process is a soothing one for Dalamus (unless his back protests). He enjoys the feeling of control he has, and the reward of making something beautiful. A feeling of control was rare in the Underdark, and as a drow new to the Surface World, he feels more out of his element than ever. Gemcutting is familiar. And perhaps useful to earn a little extra coin for the group when passing merchants.

With his limited space, tools, and materials, Dalamus is mostly restricted to cabochons rather than any complex or faceted shapes. Which is fine. He prefers the smooth polish of an expertly made cabochon anyway.